Adjacent Words

Privy chamber definitions

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Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Privy Priv"y, a. [F. priv['e], fr. L. privatus. See Private.] 1. Of or pertaining to some person exclusively; assigned to private uses; not public; private; as, the privy purse. `` Privee knights and squires.'' --Chaucer. 2. Secret; clandestine. `` A privee thief.'' --Chaucer. 3. Appropriated to retirement; private; not open to the public. `` Privy chambers.'' --Ezek. xxi. 14. 4. Admitted to knowledge of a secret transaction; secretly cognizant; privately knowing. His wife also being privy to it. --Acts v. 2. Myself am one made privy to the plot. --Shak. Privy chamber, a private apartment in a royal residence. [Eng.] Privy council (Eng. Law), the principal council of the sovereign, composed of the cabinet ministers and other persons chosen by the king or queen. --Burrill. Privy councilor, a member of the privy council. Privy purse, moneys set apart for the personal use of the monarch; also, the title of the person having charge of these moneys. [Eng.] --Macaulay. Privy seal or signed, the seal which the king uses in grants, etc., which are to pass the great seal, or which the uses in matters of subordinate consequence which do not require the great seal; also, elliptically, the principal secretary of state, or person intrusted with the privy seal. [Eng.] Privy verdict, a verdict given privily to the judge out of court; -- now disused. --Burrill.